This is a slice of my philosophical, lay scientific, musical, religious skepticism, and poetic musings. (All poems are my own.)
The science and philosophy side meet in my study of cognitive philosophy; Dan Dennett was the first serious influence on me, but I've moved beyond him.
The poems are somewhat related, as many are on philosophical or psychological themes. That includes existentialism and questions of selfhood, death, and more. Nature and other poems will also show up here on occasion.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

All of those items in the header are coming together at the "premier" blog
site for Gnu Atheists, Freethought Blogs.

A blogger booted for attacking another blogger there, then whining about it
on Google+. (Greg Laden two years ago, over #arsenicgate and my telling him that
NASA had good budgetary and other reasons to engage in PR fluffery, threatened
to have me "banned from the Internet.) Whine away, Greg. Hear that petard hoisting?

Meanwhile, your "wife," Stephanie Zvan, has an interesting dilemma. Support
her "husband" and voluntarily quit FtB herself, or support the
#skeptatheistchick movement and stay?

And next? Some sort of thought policing, I guess, as FtB cofounder Ed
Brayton notes here:

Other changes are in the works as well, mostly out of the
view of the public — new rules, new policies, new ways to make decisions that I
hope will avoid these kinds of unpleasant situations in the
future.

No details from Ed, just that it's going to be more top-down. Well, we have
long known that his co-founder, P.Z. Myers, is far from being a denizen of free
thought on his blog, and that goes beyond banning people who threaten him, which
is another thing. The longer he's been at this, the narrower his tolerance range
has become, I think.

Speaking of PZed and #skeptatheistchick, it looks like his tolerance there
has definitely narrowed. There's your train wreck, to the degree it's true. The 4Chan types hitting Freethought Blogs.

Now,
the language Justin uses may be a concern, but there's backstory here.
Already a
week ago, Rebecca Watson, #skeptatheistchick High Holy Priestess
herself, had
distorted what at least one non-FtB blogger had said about her, Tweeted
that to
thousands of her Twit followers, then refused to correct the error,
which had
gotten picked up by P.Z. He then refused to let the blogger comment on
his blog.
There was childishness on both sides, but more of it on his. (Shock me.
And shock me that P.Z. ain't going to provide the backstory. That said, I
don't know if Justin was picking up on Coffee Skeptic or not.)

Meanwhile, said Justin shows the email
by Laden that led to HIS downfall. Yep, threatening someone's job, even
worse than threatening to ban them from the Net, will get you in
trouble.

Meanwhile, video blogger Thunderf00t got himself banned for other stupidity.

I'm not wading further into the cesspool at this time.

Let me just say, as I've said before, that this is proof positive that
atheism in general and Gnu Atheism in particular is no guarator of superior
morals, superior intelligence or superior everyday common sense.

Ever since Dan Dennett invented the word "brights" for metaphysical naturalists and then lied (you did, Dan) about how that wasn't meant to imply religious people were "stupids," Gnu Atheism, sometimes on matters small, sometimes otherwise, has proven the three points above, plus has shown just as much tendency and ability to shoot itself in the foot as anybody else.